Harris Teeter giving Gastonia another chance

By Staff reports

Published: Saturday, January 4, 2014 at 10:56 AM.

Harris Teeter is ready to give Gastonia another chance.

City leaders spurned the grocery giant just a few months ago, rejecting a proposal for an upscale, Harris Teeter-anchored shopping center in southeast Gastonia. So now developers are pitching a freestanding grocery store that would be just a stone’s throw from the site suggested last summer, and smaller overall in scale.

A site plan submitted to the city by MPV Real Estate of Charlotte calls for a 53,000-square-foot grocery store, to be built on nine acres just south of the intersection of Robinwood and Kendrick roads. It would include one connected storefront beside the grocer, and three 4,800-square-foot parcels for other businesses.

The grocery store proposed last summer would’ve also been 53,000 square feet. But it was to be part of a hulking, 104,000-square-foot development on 20 acres, just east of where Robinwood and Kendrick roads meet. A rezoning was needed to make that possible.

Homeowners in the gated Heatherloch community, as well as other nearby residents, vehemently opposed the idea — mainly due to traffic concerns. When City Council members voted to a 3-3 tie in July, it killed the plan, because the rezoning required a 5-1 supermajority to pass.

Councilmen Walter Kimble, Dave Kirlin and Porter McAteer opposed it because they felt the shopping center was too big to cram in that spot. But they have been criticized for rejecting a project that would have created needed jobs and given a big boost to the city’s tax base.

Gastonia Senior Planner Jason Thompson said his staff has only just begun to review the new request, which was filed Dec. 23. It will likely come before the Gastonia Planning Commission on Feb. 6, and City Council members could vote on it later that month.

City leaders spurned the grocery giant just a few months ago, rejecting a proposal for an upscale, Harris Teeter-anchored shopping center in southeast Gastonia. So now developers are pitching a freestanding grocery store that would be just a stone’s throw from the site suggested last summer, and smaller overall in scale.

A site plan submitted to the city by MPV Real Estate of Charlotte calls for a 53,000-square-foot grocery store, to be built on nine acres just south of the intersection of Robinwood and Kendrick roads. It would include one connected storefront beside the grocer, and three 4,800-square-foot parcels for other businesses.

The grocery store proposed last summer would’ve also been 53,000 square feet. But it was to be part of a hulking, 104,000-square-foot development on 20 acres, just east of where Robinwood and Kendrick roads meet. A rezoning was needed to make that possible.

Homeowners in the gated Heatherloch community, as well as other nearby residents, vehemently opposed the idea — mainly due to traffic concerns. When City Council members voted to a 3-3 tie in July, it killed the plan, because the rezoning required a 5-1 supermajority to pass.

Councilmen Walter Kimble, Dave Kirlin and Porter McAteer opposed it because they felt the shopping center was too big to cram in that spot. But they have been criticized for rejecting a project that would have created needed jobs and given a big boost to the city’s tax base.

Gastonia Senior Planner Jason Thompson said his staff has only just begun to review the new request, which was filed Dec. 23. It will likely come before the Gastonia Planning Commission on Feb. 6, and City Council members could vote on it later that month.

“We’re only in the very initial stages of reviewing this,” he said.

This proposal will also require a rezoning. Land now designated for light office and office commercial uses would have to be converted to highway commercial.

Grocery without the extras: Steve Vermillion, managing partner of MPV Real Estate, could not be reached for comment last week. His firm has six parcels under option now to develop the grocery store site.

Davis Memorial Baptist Church would remain on Robinwood Road. But five homes east of it would be torn down, as would an old retail strip on Kendrick Road that is home to Bou Cleaners and a two other businesses.

The Harris Teeter would face northeast, with its back to the church, based on the site plan.

New turning lanes would be built to allow traffic to enter and exit the shopping center in two locations. A new traffic signal would not be installed, based on the site plan, but Thompson said that’s not set in stone.

“That’s subject to change as we look into this more with (the N.C. Department of Transportation),” he said.

A 25-foot wooded buffer and six-foot-high masonry screen wall would be required on the development’s eastern and southern boundaries. That’s less than the 80-foot buffer MPV was willing to retain in the previous proposal.

The closest residences are patio homes in the Randolph Park community, and other upscale houses in a subdivision near the Gaston Country Club.

Gastonia Mayor and part-time real estate broker John Bridgeman helped to arrange the deal. He said he will recuse himself from any eventual City Council vote, as he did last July due for the same reason.

Bridgeman said developers are scheduling a meeting with nearby residents this month to explain their intentions, as required by the city.

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.